Climbing: fear/panic on boulder wall

Anyone had similar issues?

Several years ago I sprained my ankle. I was lead-climbing a route that was a bit over my technical skills. I was in an overhanging segment above and sideways to my last bolt. I fell, swung, got tangled with the belay rope, started spinning, and hit my foot against the rock.

I stopped climbing and started recovery. At this point I became careful about all my physical activities.

A month later I embarrassingly fell on even floor in a supermarket and hurt my ankle further. At this point I became a bit fearful.

Six months later while trekking I stepped on a loose rock, fell, and hurt myself even further. At this point I became panicked and maybe close to depressed.

What did you do?

I relied on being well informed to overcome my fear. Specifically, I did my best to understand what physical therapy could do for me.

A good therapy will:

• Heal the damaged tissue.
• Strengthen the muscles.
• Gain back flexibility.

The first one is pretty obvious, but the other two deserve a few words.

Once the first healing phase is over, what you're trying to accomplish with therapy is to avoid the injury if you happen to have another accident. Strength and flexibility play a huge role in being able to sustain another fall without injuring yourself.

And here's the rub: Your ankle may be stronger and more flexible than before you had your accident. You may be less susceptible to injury.

I have since had a couple of episodes where the stress to my ankle have been bigger than the time I got sprained. I'm not a therapist, so I can only assume that YMMV. But for me, knowing that my ankles are more resilient than before helped me overcome my fear.

posted about 9 years ago

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Roflo‭

46 reputation 12 11 6 0

Generally speaking fear is an appropriate and healthy response to many of the situations you will find yourself in while rock climbing. Learning how to control, overcome, and even benefit from that fear is a key mental skill in life and climbing. Furthermore, learning to be comfortable on the rock will improve your climbing by allowing you to figure out sequences easier, give you increased endurance because you aren't wasting energy over-gripping, etc.

The best antidote, in my opinion, to paralyzing fear is confidence in your ability to handle the situation. So I believe your question boils down to: "How can I increase my confidence."

Here are some ways you can increase your confidence on rock:

1. Improve your strength.
   • A less physically taxing problem is a less intimidating problem. When you're stronger all problems are less physically taxing.
   • You can stop below the crux to throughly analyze it, and more comfortably.
   • You have the physical reserves retreat/reset when you recognize your approach to the problem is flawed.
   • You can compensate (partially) for poor technique. While not ideal I've seen this happen.
   • You can reach further to bypass marginal intermediate holds and/or be more selective in the holds you use.
2. Improve your technique.
   • Improving your technique means that you don't have to rely on strength. That means you gain all or most of the benefits of strength without becoming stronger.
   • Better technique offers new ways to approach a problem that you hadn't considered before. In ice climbing they use a technique called a figure-4. I've never used it on rock but it demonstrates a novel solution to a problem.
   • Improved ability to position your body intentionally so you can be efficient on the rock, and mitigate hazards (like making sure you won't fall on the spiky rock).
3. Rehearse the climb.
   • If you have the climb "wired" on top rope then you will be more confident on that route on lead.
   • Often you can practice sections of a climb independently. That will build your confidence in those individual sections so you only need to be concerned about linking up the climb.
4. Climb similar routes. This is really just a mashup of points 2 and 3.
   • If you know climb X involves lots of off-width crack climbing you can gain confidence on shorter/easier climbs with off-width crack climbing before you try climb X.
5. Climb with people of better and worse skill/ability than yourself.
   • Being mentored by a better climber allows you to feed off of their confidence, and learn new approaches to a problem.
   • Mentoring junior climbers allows you to feed off the confidence that the junior climbers have in you. It also forces you to analyze why you do X when you're in situation Y when the junior climbers ask for tips.
   • You clearly see the mistakes the climbers you're mentoring and/or your peers are making. This allows you to reflect on whether you're making the same mistakes.
6. Spend time climbing.
   • The more time you're exposed to something the more natural it feels. I remember when I first drove a car over 50 mph I was very nervous. Now I regularly drive 70+ without any major concerns.
   • Being a Yank and a childhood fan of Louis L'amour I feel a cowboy reference is appropriate here. There is an old adage that if you're bucked out of the saddle the best thing to do is climb back on as soon as possible. The idea is that fear grows when you feed it. By facing your fears you often learn that the thing you feared isn't as bad as you imagined.

posted about 9 years ago

CC BY-SA 3.0

Erik‭

361 reputation 13 77 42 0